1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for printing print data received from an external device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A reservation printing system has recently become widespread. The reservation printing system enables print data transmitted from a personal computer (PC) to be reserved in a printer or a print server. In the reservation printing system, the print data is stored in a hard disk of the printer or a server on a network, and the printer starts printing the print data in response to a specific operation performed in front of the printer by a user. The reservation printing system is used, for example, in a case where the printer is a shared printer connected to a network, and a printed product to be output needs to be prevented from being viewed by others.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-264865 discusses a printer receiving and temporarily storing print data to which identification information is added. This printer starts printing if the identification information added to the print data matches identification information entered from a front panel of the printer.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-182187 discusses an image recording apparatus which permits printing of only a print job of an authenticated user. This image recording apparatus accumulates print jobs and user information upon receipt of a print job designated for confidential printing. Then, the image recording apparatus performs user authentication to print only the print job of the authenticated user.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-223610 discusses a printing system including a printer. The printer receives print data corresponding to an authenticated user from a print server, and prints the received print data. The printing system enables such a printer to delete password information from the print data to print the print data.
However, the above reservation printing has the following problems in a case where user authentication is validated, and the printer prints print data requiring entry of identification information by a user for performing the printing. That is, although the user is already authenticated, the user needs to enter the identification information for performing the printing. This complicates user operation.
Moreover, in a case where user authentication is required for the printing, an unauthenticated user cannot even instruct the printer to print reserved print data. This severely impairs usability.